Tim Banks is the CEO of APM, a Canada wide construction and property development company, with its head office in Charlottetown, PEI. My family has lived on PEI for over eight generations and I was born at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, PEI. I am hoping someone will soon develop a blood test to authenticate when you actually become an "Islander" as I am still having problems explaining where I'm from?

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Premier has no options left, it's time for a major shakeup.... another $400,000 out the window.... add on the $1,500,000.00 for the "Big Break" another "Legend's Decision"... add on the $2,380,000.00 loss this year at Golf Links.... "taxpayers money going up in smoke" ....I could go on and on, but I might say what's on my mind, so I'll come back to this subject after I have a nice morning at the "market" and hopefully a nice score at golf this afternoon. Hopefully I'll be calmed down ..... HOUSTON WE GOT A "MAJOR" PROBLEM. Heads have to roll...Here are a couple of my previous posts on the subject... http://timbanks.ca/2008_09_01_archive.html

Music festival loses province its $300,000 stake The GuardianBy Teresa WrightThe GuardianA provincial loan of $300,000 given to promoters of the recent Alanis Morissette concert in Alexandra is now a 'jagged little pill' the province will have to swallow. The province learned a few days ago it shouldn't expect this loan to be paid back due to the poor attendance and high costs of the concert, said Deputy Tourism Minister Melissa MacEachern. The $300,000 was a 45-day term loan granted by the province to help promoters pay up-front costs to the acts. It wasn't part of the original deal that saw $100,000 of provincial money given toward the concert as a grant. But when the time came for the promoters to pay the acts, cash was required, MacEachern said.“We supported a bridge financing of which in the last few days we've determined that $300,000 would not be repaid.” This loss wasn't something foreseen, she said. But the department sees it as an investment made in trying to expand the Island's shoulder season tourism numbers.“Our job is to stimulate the economy, and we do all kinds of things and we use all kinds of different strategies to do that,” she said. At the time, they were looking at one of the lowest numbers ever for July in Confederation Bridge traffic and the department was getting pressure from operators to do more to boost tourism for September. “Concerts were something the industry supported and were looking for, so we were entertaining a number of different options at the time and this was one that panned out — or didn't pan out, depending on your perspective.” Final numbers are still being compiled to determine if the concert did in fact increase tourism. Some off-Island traffic was recorded, but not nearly the amount that was anticipated, MacEachern said. The only positive was that it taught the department some lessons, she added. One lesson learned is that if the province were to invest in another concert, they now believe mid-September is too late. "There were a lot of key learnings out of it that were good and bad, but was it worth the risk? Probably yes, it always is if you're going to learn from it and we certainly have." Despite the total loss amounting to $400,000 of Island taxpayers' dollars, MacEachern said taking these kinds of risks to stimulate the economy is the 'the reality of what (government) does.'" We did take a calculated risk. It didn't go the way it was planned. Concert business is a very risky business - it can go extraordinarily well or it can fail," she said. The tourism department is now in the process of developing a concert investment strategy that will work with the Tourism Advisory Council to deal with these kinds of issues for the future.MacEachern said the department hasn't yet determined if it will work again with promoter Mark Carr-Rowlitt in the future. The Guardian made several attempts to reach Carr-Rowlitt for comment. The calls were not returned.

We voted for change. That means new DM's all around. Start with the light weights Jelly and MacQuarrie. They got their jobs because they were friends with Binns. Why are they still there. Simple, no change no vote next time.